Season Slipping Away

The title of the post is misleading. The season, at least with respect to making the playoffs, has probably already slipped away. The Isles dropped another game on Saturday afternoon, this time 3-2 to the Boston Bruins. The team's record stands at 26-31-8, fourth from the league's bottom.

What's worse, players who had been scoring at regular intervals have suddenly found themselves unable to put anything past opposing goaltenders. We don't know if it's fatigue, inexperience, or some unknown influence, but John Tavares hasn't lit the lamp in 18 games. Kyle Okposo, the team leader in points, has a single goal in his last twelve. Matt Moulson, who netted a puck on Saturday, had been held to just a solitary goal in his prior seven contests. A similar statement could be said for Josh Bailey in his last nine.

Compound that with this team's injuries on defense and an unsettled goaltending situation, and it spells unhappiness. That was palpable from both losing goalie Dwayne Roloson and the coach, Scott Gordon, after the game. Both men opined that the team is not where it should be considering the style of successful hockey they had been playing earlier this calendar year.

Gordon blamed mental mistakes and said he had addressed his concerns to the team. But after banking a power play goal earlier in the game, the team failed to score on a 5 minute major triggered by a check from behind on Blake Comeau. Failing to capitalize on breaks and not creating chances have spelled doom for the Isles all season long.

While the record indicates a better record than last season, it still feels as if this team is on a never-ending tape loop of last season's "highlights." Let's hope that something changes for the positive soon.

Isles Scalp Blackhawks As Season Resumes

Tuesday (3/2) night was kind of a coming out party for Blake Comeau. He had been warming up as the Isles went into the Olympic break, with 3 goals in a two game span, but now really made his presence felt in a 5-3 win over Chicago.

The game started off in typical fashion, as the Blackhawks star-laden squad outworked and out shot the Isles by a 22-9 margin and a 2-1 goal difference. Comeau netted his first goal of the night at 12:16 to briefly tie the game, but nobody felt as if the Isles would be able to stay with Chicago, if judging by the first 20 minutes alone.

In the second frame it all changed. While Dwayne Roloson, the subject of trade rumors, made some nifty saves against Chicago's skilled forwards, scrappers like Comeau, Richard Park, and Jon Sim decided to go to work. Comeau once again supplied an equalizer at 2:27, then Jon Sim banked one past Antti Niemi 25 seconds later to put New York ahead.

Niemi was pulled after the Sim goal in favor of Cristobal Huet, but the barrage continued. Richard Park blasted a puck past Huet to put the Isles up 4-2, and Comeau sent the crowd into a frenzy with his hat trick goal at 19:42.

Instead of hats flying on the ice, hundreds of stuffed toys rained down on the Nassau Coliseum ice and delayed the game a bit. Apparently, it was a promotional giveaway evening, so while crews scrambled to clear the playing surface it gave Blake a little more time to soak the moment in.

"It's the best I've felt in a while," said Comeau, speaking of his hat trick after the game. "It felt awesome."

The four goal period felt great for the fans too, as they saw the Islanders lead 5-2 after two periods.

Chicago netted a mostly insignificant goal in the third period to complete the scoring, and the Isles skated away with a 5-3 win.

While Tuesday's win was important, Wednesday may prove to be an even bigger day for the Islanders. As most of you know, the NHL trading deadline occurs at 3 PM Eastern time, and it remains to be seen how General Manager Garth Snow will possibly reshape his team.

We at Okposo Net will be monitoring TSN's TradeCentre all day, and if any Isles-related news breaks we will post it immediately. We'll spare you the rumor-mongering that other sites dabble in and bring you the facts. So please make us part of your daily reading tomorrow afternoon and evening. Thank you as always.

Traded: Andy Sutton

Word has come in that soon-to-be 35 year old defenseman Andy Sutton has been traded. The Islanders will receive a second round draft pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. While Sutton goes to the Ottawa Senators and a likely appearance in the playoffs, the Islanders will get a pick that had previously belonged to San Jose.

Dustin Kohn has been recalled from Bridgeport to replace Sutton on the blueline tonight.

And We're Back!

Hockey returns to the New York metropolitan area tonight as the Isles take on the Second City's Blackhawks. We're also just a day away from the trading deadline (3/3 at 3 PM), with rumors circulating around several current members of the Isles.

We also haven't forgotten about our promise to being you our own analysis of how the Isles need to be shaped (or re-shaped) going into the offseason. We just figured it would be a more prudent move to deliver that *after* Wednesday's trading deadline moves have been completed.

We're glad to be back, we thoroughly enjoyed the Winter Olympics hockey and pagentry, and now we're hoping the Isles will finish strong. Without further distractions, Let's Go Islanders!

And Now a Short Break...

The Olympic Games are upon us, which means NHL hockey will suspend its season for about two weeks. Unfortunately, all the talk of the Islanders charging into the break on a strong note didn't come to fruition.

The Islanders dropped a 4-3 Valentine's Day (Sunday, 2/14) contest to Ottawa, a game they led 3-1 after two periods. It was another disheartening loss in a season full of them.

While players like Andy Sutton are still talking playoffs in the locker room, the reality of the Eastern Conference would make such a scenario an extremely difficult task, if not an impossible one. Team members will never sound a sour note, at least publicly, to the media, but a quick look at the current standings show the grim picture. Sutton, whose name has been mentioned prominently in trade talks, might make the playoffs this season, but it likely won't be on Long Island.

Time constraints following the game did not allow us to speak with Kyle following the loss. We did, however, find out through another website that he will be spending some of the Olympic hiatus back home in Minnesota. Some of the team is off for a well-deserved vacation in sunny Mexico, while coach Scott Gordon and Mark Streit are headed to the Winter Games in Vancouver (Gordon as a coach for team USA and Streit as a member of team Switzerland).

As for us, our coverage won't cease, as we plan to bring you our assessment of some off-season changes that need to be made in preparation for 2010-2011, as promised. We'll also have any Islanders news that occurs away from the ice, such as a Lighthouse project update or a trade.

The Isles will swing back into action on March 2nd, when they take on the Chicago Blackhawks of the Western Conference. We hope that you'll stick with both us and the Islanders during this period of relative inactivity.

New Career High

With his goal and assist on Saturday (2/13) against Tampa Bay, Kyle established a new personal high for points in a season with 40. He surpasses last year's 39 points (18 G, 21 A) in five fewer games. Congratulations to him, and let's hope he gets on a major roll after resting during the Olympic break.

With 20 games left post-break, what do you think Kyle's final points total will be this season? 50? 55? Can he reach 60? The comments section below is always open.

Back to Draft Watch

Unless the Isles can get things in gear really quickly, this season is going to be remembered as a tease. Garth Snow warned us all that the rebuild would be a slow and steady process, and we appreciate his honesty. But for a while it looked as if Garth's timetable was off and his team had arrived in contention ahead of schedule. Over the last few weeks reality has reared its ugly head.

The Isles have made progress. They have added pieces that will help when the team is serious about winning division titles and chasing championships. But that time is not now (we'll identify those players in a separate post during the Olympic break). Losing 9 of the last 11 games (the two wins coming via the shootout) have locked in the cold reality that 2009-2010 should again be about positioning for drafting well.

We are encouraged by the transition taking place. The end product just needs more time and better ingredients.

***
News and notes:

* Kyle Okposo is now scoreless in 7 straight games with 2 assists over that period.

* The Islanders currently sit 4th from bottom in the overall NHL standings.

* Sound Tigers defenseman Mark Katic will require shoulder surgery, joining Calvin DeHaan and Travis Hamonic on the injured prospects list.